"What to Bid" 
by: Henword '04
  So you know the rules of Euchre, and you are ready to start playing.
The first issue is; what to bid?
  Figure your partner for one trick. That means you should have at least two reasonably safe tricks. Here are three hands you should bid in most situations:
I. Any three trump and a side (non-trump) ace is good. Let's say we have 9-10-Q clubs, the ace of hearts and the 9 of diamonds. Bid clubs. Though the clubs seems weak, you have a battle plan. You are going to lead clubs at the first opportunity. You will likely lose that first club lead, but this will lessen the possibility that the opponents will trump your ace later and you are hoping to trump at least one trick later. You are guessing that your partner will have an ace that walks or a right bower to take care of the third trick.
The Henword Pages
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Exceptions:
   1) Pass if the opposing dealer has a club upturned. You can figure that the dealer has another club (maybe 2 clubs) and this increases the likelihood of being euchred. Change one of your clubs to the right bower, and you might want to bid this hand.
   2) Be wary of calling this hand if the opposing dealer has turned down a red suit. They probably don't have a red jack, and experience shows they often have a black bower or just a good hand in black, possibly clubs.
II. Bid two trump including right or left bower along with a side ace when three-suited. Let's say the hand is J-9 hearts, A-9 clubs, 9 diamonds. Bid hearts. You have less trump than in the example above, but you have a sure trick with your right bower. You also have a void in spades, giving you a possible extra trump trick when spades are led. Like above, you are going to lead trump (right bower in this case) at the first opportunity to both lessen the possibility of opponents trumping your ace, and help establish your remaining trump.
   1) Pass if an opposing dealer has a heart showing. This is especially true when you are directly left of the dealer. You've got first bid on diamonds, you will bid that if they turn down hearts, and you are going for euchre if they pick up the heart.
   2) Again as above, be wary if opponents have just turned down a black card. You may wish to pass.
   3) Modifying your hand to four-suited, as in J-9 hearts, A clubs, 9 spade, 9 diamonds, you might want to pass. You can lead that Jack of hearts at some point, but you have no ability to trump until each suit has been led once. If, however, you are left of dealer, and the dealer has just turned down a diamond, by all means bid hearts and lead out both trumps immediately. Don't let some namby-pamby fear that clubs will not be later led to your ace deter you! Yes, sometimes the opponent who captures your 9 hearts is holding the A-Q-10 of spades and they cash those in euchreing you, but experience shows this doesn't often happen. The best way to establish an ace is to lead trump.
III. If you have a hand with three trump that is two-suited, bid it. I would be cautious about bidding clubs when I have Q-10-9 clubs, and let's say 10-9 hearts, but would not rule it out, depending on the situation with the score and where I am sitting. However, a hand like A-Q-9 clubs, K-9 hearts, I will mostly bid clubs. You have two voids here, spades and diamonds, and you are hoping to get a trick in each. My preference in this situation is not to lead trump but to trump a trick and then lead the 9 of hearts. Let's assume the opponents cash their Ace heart and you get to trump another suit. You then lead out the King, not so much in the hope of cashing it, but that the opponents will have to spend a high trump on your established King. Your partner may in fact over-ruff that high trump. The reason I don't lead trump in this situation is twofold:
   1) I don't have an ace to establish.
   2) Establishing trump becomes too expensive as I hope to trump two voids here. For example, let's say I bid this hand as dealer and I first trump a spade lead. If I then lead trump, it might well make my ace of clubs good by drawing out  two bowers, but I then may have to ruff a diamond lead with that ace. That would leave the K-9 hearts and no trump for later use. Assuming the king of clubs is not buried in the kitty or with my partner, my only hope then would be for whichever opponent takes my K heart to only be able to lead back something that my partner can take. I must stress that this preference for not leading trump is controversial. It is true that when you don't lead trump as declarer, your opponents may get two trump tricks instead of one ( i.e.; one opponent has the singleton Jack of clubs, the other opponent has the singleton Jack of spades and the Ace of diamonds).
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